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Hi everyone! It’s Friday – yay!!! And a beautiful Friday at that. I can’t stop checking out my weird nail polish in this great sunlight. I just checked the weather report for New York for the weekend – make sure to get your fun in before the thunderstorms on Sunday!

So I recently tweeted that I got a package from Sephora – I ordered some goodies for my upcoming mascara showdown, which I am super psyched about (and hope you are too)! – and along with it, I got a pretty deluxe gift with purchase. Are you a Sephora Beauty Insider? You should be – the rewards really start kicking in after a while, especially when you’re a VIB (Very Important Beauty Insider). To reach that status, you need to spend 350 dollars in a calendar year – shouldn’t be too hard for a lot of beauty-obsessed women I know! The bonus from my purchase was a cute little hatbox filled with deluxe samples. Check it out!

Sephora VIB Hatbox and Goodies

Look at all that stuff! I was a little bummed that there was nary a mini lipstick to be found, but there were plenty of other things for me to get excited about. The box holds Laura Mercier Full Blown Volume Lash mascara, Benefit Ring My Bella fragrance, tokidoki Ciao Ciao rollerball, Phyto Phytolisse Finishing Serum, NARS Pro-Prime Pore Refining Primer (oil-free), Brazilian Peel,Philosophy Miracle Worker, and Stila Coconut Crush Lip and Cheek Stain. They’re all minis, but if you think about the different sizes of candy, particularly around Halloween, I’d say these samples are more “fun-sized” in comparison to “bite-sized!”

There were definitely a few things in particular I was more excited about than the others, one of them being the StilaCoconut Crush Lip and Cheek Stain. I love all things coconut and have many coconut-scented lip products, much to the disgust of my friends, and couldn’t wait to check this one out.

I have a love/hate relationship with Stila. I used to be a huge Stila fan (especially of their double-sided lipsticks, eyeshadows, and Convertible Color) but after The Estée Lauder Companies sold them in 2006, I found that the quality of many of their products went down and some of my favorites were discontinued. However, the size of their Lip Glazes went from .04/.05 oz at $24 to twice as much product (.08 oz) for the same price! By then, though, I was disenchanted with them after seeing how they were willing to commit highway robbery, and have stopped purchasing their products.

When I pulled out the sample of Stila’s Coconut Crush Lip and Cheek stain, I was all, “holy cow, this is the same size as the old Lip Glazes and it’s free!” I was wrong. The sample was .02 oz. Anyone who’s used a click pen gloss knows how quickly they are used up, especially with the inefficient packaging. So that irked me before I even started. See my comparison of sizes below.

Okay, so I finally tried the product out – after clicking and twisting for a million years, some came out, but not enough to really test it. So I clicked some more, and way too much came out. Did I mention how I hate click pen containers?

Once I got enough (too much) out to actually try Coconut Crush, (full size available here at Sephora.com), I was pleased with how natural it looked on my skin – like I had tanned naturally – which is very lightly. Then I became suspicious. How long was this going to stick around?

Stila Coconut Crush Lip and Cheek Stain sample

It didn’t. I couldn’t really see it anymore after an hour. And it was drying on the lips (it’s a stain, fine). I’m glad it made its guest appearance, but it was kind of like going to Fashion’s Night Out here in NYC during Fall Fashion Week to try to see a celebrity or designer despite your general disinterest in famous people, and then not being allowed into the store because it’s overcrowded, thus ending up only just barely seeing an elbow through the window (I’m looking at you, Gwen Stefani and Tim Gunn!). To sum up, it was very mildly satisfying but mostly a big build up to disappointment even though you didn’t think you wanted it in the first place.

Sigh.

Do you have StilaCoconut Crush Lip and Cheek Stain? What do you think? Should I still keep giving Stila the silent treatment, or do you think there’s a product that will make me reconsider?

Anyway, I hope you all have a nice weekend! There’s plenty of neat stuff coming up on the blog. Once I accumulate all my competitors, I’ll be posting my several-part series mascara showdown! A friend of mine works for a fashion designer with a beauty line, and she’ll be providing me with a sneak peek of their new fall products and relaunches! (Who doesn’t love a good sneak peek?!) All that among my other craziness on here. See you guys next week!